Best Baked Pasta Recipes - Spicy Sausage Pasta Bake
Creative cooking is fun. I love browsing around Pinterest, Instagram, other food blogs, and perusing the web for inspiration and then crafting my own designs from those inspirations.
And sometimes, an idea just comes to me from something I've made in the past, like a Chicken Vegetable Lasagna, Mushroom Bow-Tie Pasta, or Cheesy Butternut Squash Pasta Bake.
Glorious Dinner in the Oven
Yesterday when browsing around, I had an AhHa! moment.
I've always loved baked ziti and lasagna, but never thought of trying a baked pasta recipe with bow-tie pasta. I don't know why, because bow-tie pasta is so much fun.
I love pasta so much that I've tinkered around with the idea of buying a pasta maker so I can make all kinds of nummy homemade pastas. We had one growing up and I remember that it was fun to use.
I thought I would spice things up a bit, and decided to use sausage instead of ground beef... the only reason why: I've had a couple rounds of sausage taking up room in my freezer not being used.
So... Spicy Sausage Pasta Bake was born. And no, I didn't even use spicy sausage... just regular old mild breakfast sausage. But, you totally could use spicy Italian sausage--which is in fact one of my favorite things to cook with!
Spicy Sausage Pasta Bake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups bow-tie pasta
- 1 pound ground pork sausage
- 2 cups tomato puree or sauce
- 1 ½ cups cottage cheese or Ricotta if you prefer
- 1 egg
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese divided
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon red pepper more or less depending on preference, I found ½ teaspoon had just the right kick without being over-powering
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Boil water for pasta and cook according to box directions, but set timer for the minimum cooking time, drain.
- Brown the sausage and drain grease.
- In a big mixing bowl combine tomato puree, cottage cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese and ½ cup of Mozzarella and seasonings. Mix until well blended.
- Add bow-tie pasta and sausage to the mixture and stir until mixed evenly.
- Pour into an 8×8 baking dish and sprinkle ½ cup Mozzarella cheese over the top. Put in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until bubbly. Enjoy!
Jacquie Ragan
Is there supposed to be some sort of tomato sauce in this? It's "red" but there is no mention of tomato in the recipe. Thanks!
Jessica
2 cups of tomato puree or sauce. The recipe has been updated and I apologize for the oversight. Hope you enjoy. 😉
Jacquie Ragan
Thanks, Jessica! We had it for dinner tonight and it was a hit with my husband and both of my little girls! I only added about 1/4 tsp of red pepper which didn't really make a dent. I was afraid to add too much for the girls. Next time I'll probably go ahead and add the full 1/2 tsp.
Jessica
Glad it was a hit! That is always nice to hear. ; We had it again for dinner the other night and enjoyed it as well. And then I had a nice lunch of leftovers- which is always good when I'm too busy to make a lunch.
Liz
What type of Parmesan cheese do you use for this? The grated in a container (spaghetti Parmesan), shredded, or fresh/bagged?
Thanks!
Jessica
You can use whatever kind you have. I have used both grated in container and fresh/bagged.
Wendy
Just wondering at what point can you freeze this meal to save for another day?
Jessica
Hi Wendy! Thanks for the question. I normally will go ahead and put it all in a bag or other container to freeze at the point where I'm mixing all the ingredients together- after the meat has cooked. Since it does have egg in it, you might want to combine everything in the pan you cooked the sausage in, and just let it heat through for a couple minutes before putting it in the freezer.
Jennifer
Hi! I have to cook for my life group next week and I wanted to make this in addition to another pasta dish, could it be cooked at 375? About how much longer would it take? Thanks in advance!
Jessica McCoy
Hi Jennifer. I'm not positive how much extra time it would take, but I imagine maybe 10-15? I would just check it after the given time to see how hot it is and then every 5 or so minutes to see if it is ready. Good luck and let us know what the time ends up being!
plasterers bristol
Yummy!! not tried this before, sounds lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
Shelly
Hi I saw this off of your best ever chili mac recipe page. It might be because Im viewing it on my phone but I can't see the actual recipe on this page.
Jessica McCoy
There was an error with it but it has been fixed. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!